Solus4 Unveils Flowing, Solar-Powered Busan Opera House for Korea

Solus4 recently proposed a design solution for the Busan Opera House competition that symbolizes the elements of culture and history of Korea. Alfonso Lopez, lead designer describes the origins of the design: “A very special characteristic of Korean heritage is the linked uniformity of the art, history, culture and language. Much of this is based on the beauty and the pleasure that each element of nature represents to the individual and the community”. The lyrical, free-flowing structure also features a host of sustainable building strategies ranging from roof-based solar collectors to sea water differential temperature cooling, tidal current generators, and geothermal mass storage.

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lazyreaderSeptember 20, 2011 at 1:39 pm

This looks an awful lot like Sydney’s opera house. Which makes me wonder about symbols and elements of culture and history of Korea. I don’t think anywhere I’ve seen a building like this anywhere (except in Australia). With the overall economy still in poor shape it hit non-profit arts organizations especially hard. With millions of people scrambling to pay for food and other basics, a night at the opera can seem frivolous. So museums, symphonies, theaters, ballet companies and opera companies have cut staff, canceled performances, shortened seasons and, in some cases, shut down. A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll in December found that 69% of Americans are cutting back on entertainment. Such sentiments have forced arts organizations to plan survival scenarios. I wouldn’t be as surprised for South Korea did the same. Which leads me to think who is paying for this opera house, private donors or taxpayers. The philosophical divide between those who see the arts as frivolous and those who see its value is older than America or Korea. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the federal Works Progress Administration paid thousands of unemployed artists to write regional guidebooks, produce plays and organize symphony orchestras. The work of more than 5,000 artists can still be seen today in murals commissioned for schools, post offices and other government buildings. Public money also is drying up as states struggle with yawning budget deficits. In Maryland, lawmakers have threatened to cut arts funding by 36 percent; why are they funding so much of the arts?

It was not until the rise of Stalin that the arts came under fire in Russia; this because he was, simply put, not a fan of the arts, save for their political implications. Even so, composers such as Shostakovich and Profokiev were still able to have good careers. Communist societies despised everything about the West, therefore anything with some resemblance was viewed negatively. America’s emphasis on the arts is actually fairly weak when compared to other countries, such as Japan. Japan’s public education system has music and other fine arts as part of the core curriculum starting at the junior high level. All I can say about the arts, if you don’t make enough money at it to support your lifestyle, it’s called a hobby.